November 10, 2024

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Liberals reveal mental health care promises

Liberals reveal mental health care promises

In response, Tories trumpet the progress they’ve made

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The Liberals have laid out their plan to improve New Brunswickers’ access to mental health services, pledging $4.7 million in annual new spending for several initiatives, including doubling residencies for clinical psychologists, getting more mental health professionals into schools, and creating a mental health advocate’s office.

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At a Thursday morning announcement at Kingswood Entertainment Centre, just south of Fredericton, Liberal leader Susan Holt said the Progressive Conservatives under leader Blaine Higgs have “abandoned” people who need mental health treatment, and that’s led to “terrible outcomes.”

Asked to respond to that comment, Higgs replied that “I think you will find that we have introduced a program to deal with mental health issues very quickly” that reduced wait times by about 75 to 80 per cent.

Earlier this year, the PCs said of the nine goals they’d set to improve mental health services, eight have been met, including more beds to treat patients with mental illness, the creation of an addiction and mental health helpline, and more mobile crisis units.

While Holt agreed that some progress has been made, “the way the government has approached this didn’t respond to the … magnitude of the need in society.”

“Unfortunately we have more and more people who need access to care, and the measures the government has taken haven’t gotten us ahead,” she said. “Waiting lists are getting longer, and the wait times are getting longer.”

Holt’s plan particularly focuses on youth mental health, and was applauded by Hanwell-New Maryland Liberal candidate Cindy Miles, who joined her at the announcement. Miles is a longtime mental health advocate, and one of the co-creators of Dots NB, a provincial non-profit organization committed to excellence in kids’ mental health.

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“We have seen access to mental health services deteriorate and no meaningful action taken to address the needs of New Brunswickers,” Holt said. “Mental health has often been treated as an afterthought, a sidebar, when it’s a core part of our individual health, and of our health system, and needs to be treated as such.”

Holt announced that if elected, a Liberal government will:

  • Award 30 grants to build a “community based case management system” across the province, with outreach workers to deliver front-line services, including to youth, and in schools. She estimates that will cost about $1.7 million per year once fully implemented, and hopes that 15 of the 30 grants will be “out the door” in the 2025-2026 fiscal year;
  • Double the number of residencies for clinical psychologists to build a “pipeline” of expertise. Holt estimates that will cost about $300,000 per year;
  • Move ahead with “urgency” on an existing plan to build a provincial youth treatment facility in Moncton. That facility was announced by the PCs a couple of years ago, but is still in the design phase and isn’t expected to be open until 2026. Holt said it won’t need new money because it’s already been budgeted;
  • Expand and “advance” the mental health court system, including hiring new psychiatrists, to reduce the number of people being “pushed into the jail system.” The Liberals estimate that will cost $2.4 million over four years;
  • Create an “independent and unbiased” mental health advocate’s office. Several years ago, all 49 MLAs unanimously agreed that the idea was a good one, but the Liberal-led motion they passed was non-binding, and the Higgs government chose not to create the position or fund the office. Holt said that will cost about $300,000 a year.

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Holt also cast doubt on the PCs’ claim that the already delayed youth mental health facility set to open in Moncton in 2026 will be ready on time, saying that it’s already been plagued by “bureaucratic delays” and noting that there are “no shovels in the ground.”

The health department recently told Brunswick News that the project is in its design phase, but is scheduled to open in 2026.

Higgs referenced that facility in his response to Holt, and then pivoted.

“But I think the point I would make the most about this is that we have spent the last little while looking at mental health and addiction services,” he said. “And that doesn’t mean a life of drugs. It means a recovery program.”

Asked for his thoughts on the Liberal plan, Green party Leader David Coon labelled it “inadequate.”

“There is a crisis now,” Coon said. “There’s a great urgency to ensure that young people in particular – but not just young people – receive the mental health assistance that they need. We need mental health teams in our schools now.”

– With files from John Chilibeck and Julia Sheehan

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